How do you plan a honeymoon when you don’t know exactly what your life will be like around the time of your wedding? Well, the simple answer is you don’t. In late June, before the decision to leave Guinea and the company was made, I assumed I would still be working here and that I would only be able to get limited time off from work i.e. around two weeks for the honeymoon. There were so many places we wanted to see, but in the end decided in going to two places that we dreamt of going to for ages: Cappadocia in Turkey and Petra in Jordan.

I had everything researched: Flights, hotels, what to see, what not see etc. But then Raquel and decided to take the risk and quit our jobs to move to South Africa. Suddenly, we had more time off than we could imagine. It was at this point that Raquel and I made the conscious decision to take an extended honeymoon and visit a few places which have been on our bucket list. Actually Raquel was supposed to do this trip last year with her friends but in the end didn’t as it didn’t match up with my holiday schedule.

Now the situation is different. We have no job commitment for the time being and can afford to travel for a while longer, so we decided to take honeymoon of a month and a half and do the trip that both Raquel and I have wanted to do for a while: Backpacking through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and ending with visiting good friends of hers in Macau.

“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”

Mark Twain

Well, if Mark Twain is correct then our marriage will start with the ultimate test… Backpacking together through Asia! To say we are excited is the understatement of the century! In the past month was have taken big decisions and even though we won’t be travelling for that long, we have decided that sometimes we need to be free of the shackles of work and dedicate some time to ourselves.

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page”

Augustine of Hippo

Now, we have a rough plan of what we want to see and do, but if anyone has been to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, please share what you thought was awesome about the places! If you have written posts about it, even better, just leave a comment with the link to post and I will read it! Remember, any tips are welcome!

Our plans

* The map above is indicative, as we will stop at several cities between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and beyond.

Looks like a fantastic trip, Tonito
I had a 3-week whistlestop tour around Thailand/Malaysia/Singapore/Indonesia planned for our honeymoon – we ended up going on a 1 week trip to Mauritius instead! I still loved it, and at the end of the day, it’s not where you so much as who you go with… and of course, with it being a honeymoon – it’s with the best possible person 🙂

Thanks Lu! I know what you mean when you say its not where you go, but who you go with that is important! 🙂 Really looking forward to this trip as it is a trip both of us wanted to do and to be able to travel for so long is not something that we will be able to do to often! 🙂